Six horses saved from neglect

Six horses have been saved from lives of neglect this month, with the RSPCA taking three while the others were taken by World Horse Welfare.

The animals were discovered at a farm in Kent, suffering from inadequate diet, dental problems, untreated ringworm, and wounds from their horse rugs.

Horse rugs should be properly fitted to a horse – not loose – so that the material does not rub and the rug does not start twisting round, potentially causing the animal to panic.

Both owners were banned from owning equines for twelve months, fined £100, and ordered to pay £500 in court costs each.

Due to appeals by the pair, it took a while before the two organisations had full ownership of the six horses.

Speaking of the three horses taken into World Horse Welfare's care, Manny (a brown Thoroughbred), Pally, (a Welsh Cross Palomino), and Terry (a Welsh Cross Chestnut), the Field Officer stated, "The good news is that the three lovely boys are now officially ours, which I am very happy about – we can now look forward to rehoming them to new families through our Rehoming Scheme."

For high-quality horse rugs and other equipment to keep your animal comfortable, such as fly sheets, please visit Dogwood London today.

Gelding saved from "certain death"

If you think you've had a bad week, spare a thought for poor Jeremy. On the 29th of August, this one-ton gelding waded into a pool of muddy water at a farm near Greater Manchester, when he became trapped and was unable to get out.

A story such as this could have easily ended in tragedy. After all, the poor animal was reportedly up to his neck in water and suffering from hypothermia. Fortunately, a specialist fire-fighting team arrived at the scene to help Jeremy out of his predicament.

Accompanied by his owners and best friend, a donkey named Misty, Jeremy was pulled to safety after being stuck in the pond for more than three hours.

It was a close call, poor Jeremy nearly died – but Misty stayed with him throughout the entire ordeal. One of the owners jokingly referred to the pair as being similar to "Little and Large". While we have no doubt that they are the best of friends, they probably do not wear matching horse rugs...

We hope Jeremy manages to make a full recovery and will be back to his old self soon – and the landowner fences off the pond to stop a similar situation like this from happening again.
Surprisingly, this isn't the first time Jeremy has suffered a near-death experience – several years ago he needed to be rescued by fire-fighters when he became trapped in a canal.

Photo © Kevan via Flickr under Creative Commons Licence